IBM to Employees: Go See Your Doc

While a number of companies are shifting health care costs to their employees, Big Blue is picking up the full tab for many of its workers to see family doctors.

Beginning next year, International Business Machines Corp. will stop requiring employees to pay a $20 co-pay when they see their primary-care physicians.

It may seem counterintuitive in an era of consumer-directed health care. But IBM execs want their employees to see their doctors to catch health problems early. Preventative care is the best bet for heading off more serious health issues down the road, and it keeps workers productive in the short term, they say.

"We really think health care is more than just treating the sick," says Marianne Defazio, IBM's director of health benefits design and strategy.

Spending $79 million on wellness programs between 2004 and 2007 returned $191 million in savings, Defazio says. What's more, IBM, which spends $1.3 billion a year on health care in the U.S., is able to keep the rate of growth for its insurance costs to better-than-average low single digits, she says. The new co-pay policy will apply to 80 percent of IBM's workers, or those in the company's self-insured plan. It doesn't apply to workers in health maintenance organizations.

When IBM makes a move like this, other employers take note. The company, which has been vocal about the cost of health care, is considered progressive among large employers. In pilot programs around the country, IBM is experimenting with so-called medical home health care models. In one such pilot in Arizona, doctors are paid set amounts and given bonuses for positive outcomes rather than fee reimbursements for each service they provide.